It Started With a Letter
by vernal equinox
Summary: This is about Lily starting at Hogwarts. Its pretty short now but hopefully I'll add more if people like it.
1. Platform 9 3/4

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Author's Note: Hey everyone. This is my first fan fiction. I've always like writing stories but they were never based on anything, nor have I ever let anyone read this. This is just an attempt at finding how I should write fan fictions so don't be too harsh on me. Please review, I'd love to know if I did an okay job or not. If enough people like it then I'll probably add more to the story. Thanks!   
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, its all J.K. Rowling's so yea, please don't sue me. Thanks!

She looked at nervously at the floor wondering how on Earth she had gotten into this situation. People stared at her as they walked by, though this was not much of a surprise for she was standing there with a large, screeching owl on her trolley. As she stood there looking from platform nine to platform ten, pondering where this mysterious platform 9 ¾ was, she recalled the day this madness in her life had begun.

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Lily Evans shot out of bed and swiped her long red hair out of her face to look at her alarm clock. It was 5:15 in the morning. Confused for a minute of why she woke up so early, she got chills down her spine. Something was going to happen today. She got dressed and went to the bathroom to freshen up, then went downstairs. She was halfway through her bowl of soggy cereal when her sister came downstairs. Her elder sister took no notice of her and poured herself a bowl of cereal. 

Then there was a tapping on the kitchen window. Her sister looked up and let out an alarming scream and ran upstairs. "Mum! Dad! HELP!" Lily looked and saw the tapping came from an owl wanting to come in. Curiosity ruled over fear as she slid open the window. The owl landed on the dinner table and stuck its leg out. Connected to it was a large envelope with the girl's name on it. She just began opening the envelope when her parents came downstairs followed closely behind by the elder daughter. 

Her mother stared at the owl, which was now pecking at the soggy cereal. "What in the world…" 

"Oh look! Its an owl!" finished her not-so-awake husband. 

"It brought a letter, addressed to me," informed the redhead, answering the wonder and disbelief in her parents' eyes. 

"Well, I guess you should open it then, see what it is," replied her mother. The girl slid open the envelope and put the first paper on the table for all to see.  


HOGWARTS SCHOOL  
of WITHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

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(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme

Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Ms. Evans,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.   
Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

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Deputy Headmistress

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Lily sighed. So much had happened that summer, and still she had so many questions and so few answers. As she glanced at her watch she saw it was already 10:50, and the Hogwarts Express, the train that was to take her to her new school, was going to leave at 11:00. Becoming quite frantic, she jumped up and down racking her brain for something on the letter that she might have missed, something telling her how to get to platform 9 ¾. Then she felt a small hand poke her shoulder.  
"Need help?" The girl looked over and saw a small boy with extremely untidy black hair and large round glasses looking at her. Then she saw that he too had an owl, so she decided that he must be going to Hogwarts also.  
"Yes actually, I'm err…. not used to magic so errr…"  
"I assumed you were a muggle-born when I saw you prancing between these platforms," said the boy, smiling at her. "You just walk straight through the barrier, and don't be frightened. Close your eyes and run if it helps."

She looked at him, smiled, and grabbed his hand. "Will you go through with me? I'm very new at all this." So they walked through the barrier together. "By the way, I'm Lily Evans."  
"James Potter," answered the boy as he looked up at the scarlet train in front of them. "See you around, bye!"   
"Bye," Lily answered as she watched him run off. She looked up at the large sign saying "Platform 9 ¾" and stepped into the train.

Inside the train there was a lot of commotion and Lily, wishing for a quiet space to observe her new surroundings, headed to the back of the train. As she entered the last compartment she saw there were already a few people there, four to be exact. She recognized one of them as the boy who had helped her get through the barrier, and waved. He looked up and blushed, then pointed to the chairs for her to join them. Another taller black-haired boy whispered something to him and James blushed tomato red.   
"Hi, I'm Sirius Black, you must be Lily Evans," the taller boy stated more than questioning. "This is Remus Lupin," pointing to the sandy-haired boy, "and this is Peter Pettigrew," pointing to the last and smallest boy. "We all just met, come on and join us," added Sirius.

"Thanks," said Lily, and the five children started talking about their separate lives, and what Hogwarts was going to be like. Lily soon learned that the four boys were very mischievous, especially James and Sirius. When she told them she had never gotten a detention before in her life, both looked at her, surprised and appalled. Lily found this very amusing and started laughing, and started talking about how she had never missed a homework assignment, and various other stories of her good-student status, much to the two boys disgust and interest. 

As they reached the end of their journey to the school they all started becoming nervous. The boys, each born from wizard families, told Lily of what their parents had told them about the sorting process. They all had bizarre stories of fighting dragons, taking long exams, casting spells and other frightening ordeals that she was quite glad when the train stopped so that she didn't have to listen to any more deranged ideas.

A booming voice was calling all the first years toward him, telling them to get into boats. Lily looked up to find the source of the voice and saw an enormously tall man who resembled a small giant. Everyone got into groups of four and climbed into the boats, except for Lily and the boys. Because Lily and Peter were both so small, all five of them crammed into one boat and sailed off. 

When they reached the other side of the river all the first years were told to line up and get ready for the sorting. Lily watched in amusement as James tried unsuccessfully to make his hair flat, which had a habit of sticking up in odd directions. Lily wondered whether that boy even owned a hair comb, but before she had time to ponder this, the first years were brought out in the Great Hall. She looked around, amazement and wonder dancing in her large, shining emerald eyes. The ceiling was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, looking just like the outside sky. Millions of stars blinked down at her and a few clouds swam slowly through the pretend sky. Lily thought about how lucky she was to be part of this magical world. 

She watched as a stern-looking professor walked out and put a frayed old hat on a stool. She slowly began shouting out the names of the first years, each who walked over and put the hat on their head. The hat would then yell out the name of one of the four Houses, and there the student would go. The four Houses were Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. A girl next to her informed Lily that the Houses were named after four famous witches and wizards who had started the school. Lily was pleased to see that her and the four boys she had met were all sorted into Gryffindor. As she sat down at the Gryffindor table she looked around, trying to take it all in. Everything was so new and fantastic. 'This is going to be one interesting year,' she thought as she plunged into the food in front of her, her taste buds dancing from the wonderful sensations of the various foods. 

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Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own any of this! Its all J.K. Rowling's so don't sue me please.

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	2. Charms and Hush-hush

hogwarts2

Author's Note: Hey, this is the second chapter so I hope you like it. Nothing much has happened yet but I'm not a great suspense writer so sorry about that. Thanks! Please review so I know if you like it!  


Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, it's all J.K. Rowling's 

It had been one week since Hogwarts School or Witchcraft and Wizardry had started, and Lily was still walking around in a haze. Never before had she seen so many wonderful things. She hardly remembered the feast they had on the first day of school; she had been so mesmerised by her surroundings. Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, was the most interesting professor she'd ever met. His eyes twinkled with interest and she knew he must be a highly respected wizard. The stern teacher who had read off the names at the sorting ceremony turned out to be Professor McGonagall, the headmistress, transfiguration teacher, and also the head of the Gryffindor House. Lily loved being a Gryffindor. For once she did not have to deal with her rude older sister Petunia, who had always hated Lily for reasons unknown to the younger sister. Although Lily thought her fellow first-year girls were nice, she spent most of her time alone exploring the huge castle. She got lost several times but saw wondrous rooms and corridors. She found one painting of a knight called Sir Cadogan, whom she found very entertaining. She made faces at him as the knight yelled, "Draw, you scury braggart! Draw!" 

As she was heading to charms for the first time she received a slight surprise. The large statue that was standing in the corridor she was walking through all of a sudden stood up and moved aside. Lily would have screamed if she weren't frozen in shock. Then she heard laughter and saw the four boys, Peter, Sirius, Remus, and James, climbing out of the whole behind where the statue previously stood. As she saw them she finally regained her voice.  
"Ahhhhh!!!!" she yelled loudly. All the boys looked at her and James ran over and covered her mouth. "Momoffmm!"  
"What?" questioned James as Lily struggled under his grasp. "Ow! Why'd you do that?!" he yelled as Lily bit down on his hand.  
She looked at him angrily, "because I couldn't BREATHE!"

"Oh, that's always a good reason," and he shrugged. "We don't want to get in trouble so do you mind not screaming next time?" 

"What were you doing? How'd you know about that statue?"

"Well err…..yea- "

Sirius cut him off, "top secret. Very hush-hush,"

Lily pouted and tried to put a look of pleading on her face, "So you're not going to tell me?"

"Nope, sorry!" Remus said cheerfully.

Lily looked over at James, who looked sad but then blushed, and then at Peter, who just glared at her.

"Okay well, er…I'll go then," and she walked off to Charms.

At Charms she surprised the teacher, Professor Flitwick, by being the only student to perform the charm he had asked them to. When he questioned if her parents had taught her that, he was more surprised when she answered.  
"No, my parents don't know any magic, they are er…what do you call them? Muggles?" she replied. The teacher's eyes brightened and he toppled off his chair. Professor Flitwick was so short he needed to stand on a chair to look over his desk. The boys just stared at her, amazed that she was so good at Charms. Some people in the class looked at her suspiciously, muttering under their breaths about know-it-alls. 

The boys, impressed with her abilities at Charms, ran up to Lily. They all had dazzling smiles on their faces. They asked her about the muggle world and whether it was different from the magical world. Lily was talking so much that she was surprised to realize they had walked all the way to Transfiguration class without noticing it.

Lily didn't do half as well as she did in Charms, but most of the four boys, excluding Peter, seemed do be doing pretty well. James especially was good at Transfiguration; he managed to transfigure a toothpick into a needle, a spoon into a fork, and as a special assignment to challenge him, a rat into a small rabbit. James said it just came to him and he didn't know why it was so easy for him. Peter Pettigrew seemed very sour after Transfiguration because the professor commented on his complete incapability to even make the toothpick look shiny. 

Throughout the first week she enjoyed all the new shocks and surprises waiting within each classroom, except History of Magic, which she discovered was just a class to catch up on some lost sleep. Professor Binns, the teacher, droned on and on about how they were to learn many things this year, and then went off talking about goblins. Lily received her worst shock though, when she walked into Potions. 

The first-year Gryffindors were taking the class with the Slytherins. Lily thought the Slytherins looked like a nasty bunch. Rude and surly, they looked like they all had a secret mission to make the Gryffindors suffer. The professor, a tall and skinny man, was the head of the Slytherin house. He was known to favor his House over all the other ones, and gave severe punishments to the three other Houses. While Lily was talking to another Gryffindor girl who was also muggle-born, she heard a Slytherin grunt something that sounded distinctly like 'mud-blood'. Lily, having never heard of this word, was confused as she watched the girl she had been talking to yelling at the Slytherin. Afterwards the girl, Samantha Ravenbell, explained the mud-blood meant mixed-blood or muggle-born, only in a very rude way. Lily was surprised that the Slytherin had felt it necessary to call her that, and asked why. 

Remus, who had been sitting at a table near by, leaned over and explained loudly for all to hear, "Slytherins are all like that, rude and uncivilized. No manners what so ever. They all think only pureblood witches and wizards should be allowed in Hogwarts. Pay no attention to them, they'll probably be begging for your help in years to come." 

Sirius and James smirked at the Slytherins that were staring at Remus with hatred in their eyes. The Potions professor told them all to quiet down and took five points of Gryffindor for Remus's "disrespectful speech", while not punishing the Slytherin the least for calling Lily a mud-blood. 

As the year dragged on Lily learned more and more about magic and the magical community. Sometimes she wished her family members were wizards and witches too so that she had known all this. She decided, though, that it would have taken most of the amazement out of her Hogwarts experience, and plus it would probably mean having to go to the same school as her annoying older sister, Petunia. She realized that she was lucky to be part of both worlds, for many witches and wizards did not understand the muggle world at all. She entertained her four friends by telling them all about it. Remus was still asking Lily questions about how the television worked when James and Sirius burst through the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Remus! We have to show you something! Where's Peter?" Sirius asked while he was grinning like a maniac with a little too much caffeine in his blood. 

Remus stared at him, and then grinned, "You found a pas-"

"Shhh!" James cut him off, pointing at the other people in the common room. "Yes, we did, now where's Peter?"

Lily looked at the three boys, each with large smiles plastered on their faces and an impish look in their eyes. "You aren't by chance going to tell me about this, are you?"

"No, sorry. Very hush-hush."

"Yeah, that's what you said last time," and she stood up and walked away. Feeling anger boiling in her veins from being excluded, she didn't pay attention to where she was going and walked smack into Peter Pettigrew. He glared at her and then turned to his friends.

"You called for me?"

"Yeah, lets go, we have to show you something!" answered Sirius, winking at Peter.  
Peter looked confused for a few seconds, and then a smile started to crawl on his face. "Ohhh……you found….oh okay, lets go!" he said, now grinning almost as much as the others.

Now that all four of them were together they ran off through the portrait. Lily sighed, trying to think of what it might be, and walked off to the girls dormitory. 'Maybe they'll tell me someday,' she thought as she put on her pajamas. 'Maybe they'll get in trouble, and get detentions.' She smiled at that and looked at her alarm clock. 12:00 midnight, most likely they'd get in trouble. She pulled her hair out of her ponytail and jumped in bed. 'Night Lily,' she thought to herself and fell fast asleep.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, it's all J. K. Rowling's 

Hope you liked it! Please review! 

  



	3. Detentions

hogwarts3

Author's Note: Here's the third chapter. I hope you like it, please review!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, it's all J. K. Rowling's

Lily shot up, awakened by the howling of a wolf. Waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, she saw she was the only one awake. It was 3:00 in the morning. "Ugh," Lily grunted as she dragged herself out of bed to the window. The full moon was beautiful, radiating soft light on the school grounds. She heard another howl and searched for the source of the noise. 'Probably the Forbidden Forest,' she thought, and fell back onto her bed.

"Lily, Lily wake up," said one of her roommates as she tried to shake Lily awake.   
"Hmm….what? What time is it?"

"Come on, you already missed breakfast, don't want to miss class do you?"

At this Lily completely woke up, "What? Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"Well I did but you tried to kick me in your sleep,"

"Oh, sorry," Lily said as she got up and headed to her closet. She threw on some clothes and a robe and walked down to the common room. There she saw the four boys huddled in a corner. "Hi," she yawned as she walked over. 

Remus looked up wearily, "Oh hi, did you sleep well?" 

"Actually, I woke up once but that's it. You?"

Remus glanced down to the floor, "lets just say I suffer from a special case of insomnia."

Lily looked at him, confused by his answer, but chose not to mention it. Sirius handed her some food, mumbling something about not seeing her at breakfast.

"Thanks, what's our first class today?"

"Potions, but it doesn't start for another hour," James replied. Lily looked sourly at her roommate, wishing she hadn't woken her up. James's answer seemed to spark interest in Remus.

"Wait, not for another hour? Then why are we sitting here guys? Lets go find another-"

"Detention?" Peter cut in, grumbling at the three other boys. 

Lily laughed smugly, "So you got in trouble again?"

The four boys ignored her and Sirius got up. Pulling James and Remus to their feet he said, "Yeah Remus, lets go," referring to Remus's earlier comment. Remus grinned at him and pulled Peter up. James's eyes were sparkling and had a waggish expression on his face.

"Off we go!" James yelled and ran to the portrait. Lily glared at his back as he ran off. Sirius opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off.  


"Yes yes, very hush-hush. I remember," she said morosely. Sirius put a mock pained look on his face and then grinned. He ran after James with Remus and Peter on his heels. Lily sighed and went to get her books for Potions.

The four boys never showed up for Potions and Lily was in a very bad mood. She glared and snapped at everyone who dared so much as look in her general direction. Samantha Ravenbell, a fellow Gryffindor, tried to engage Lily in a conversation but stopped when Lily purposely put in the wrong ingredients into her cauldron, making it explode into a enormous cloud of purplish fumes. When the professor told Lily to stay after class to clean up the mess, she screamed at the teacher and ended up with a detention. Lily was so mad at the boys for excluding her that she didn't even care. 

Later that evening Lily walked into Professor McGonagall's classroom, waiting to be told what her punishment would be. She looked at the other people in the classroom, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black. 

"So," Lily said angrily, "this is why you weren't in class today." She growled at Sirius when he looked her oddly and snapped, "what are you looking at?!" Sirius looked shocked and decided to stare at the blackboard in front of him. Lily walked to the back of the classroom and sat down, shooting angry looks at the three other boys.

"So, Miss Evans is here? All right, that's everyone. You'll all be cleaning the trophy room under the supervision of Argus Filch," said Professor McGonagall as she looked up from the papers on her desk. Lily was furious at the prospect of working with the boys. Remus was looking at her oddly, wondering why she was in detention.

"So Lily….why are you here?" He gently questioned as they walked over to the trophy room. 

"I blew up my cauldron on purpose and yelled at the professor," she replied crudely. James and Sirius stared at her while Peter just grunted something that sounded like 'girls'.

"Why'd you do that?" James asked, bracing himself for a Lily to shriek at him.

"Because….I hate you guys," she said instead.

Sirius looked pained, "why is that? I thought you were our friend?"

Lily stared at him, dumbstruck by his stupidity to not notice what they were doing to her. Then her face contorted to boiling rage. "I can't say. Its very hush-hush," she said, imitating Sirius's voice. He looked at her, confusion written on his face, but then he seemed to understand. He glanced at James who nodded.

"Well, if you really want to know, we found a secret passageway. We're planing to make a map of the school. Plus we like to pull pranks, and secret passageways will help us get away from the crime scene quicker, if you know what I mean," Sirius explained. 

Lily stared at him and said, "Everyone already knows you guys are pranksters, why did you feel you needed to keep that from me?" The boys looked at her and Remus shrugged.

"I guess we didn't want other people to know about the passageway." Lily huffed and started to work. 

By the end of detention, though, she had made up with the boys and was chattering happily about how much trouble they'd get into by the end of the year. Sirius and James said they were going for a school record of most detentions in one year, and Remus added that hopefully by their seventh year they'd have the most detentions of any student in the past. Lily told them they were crazy but if they ever needed help with charms, she'd be glad to help them. The boys seemed pleased with this and soon they were told that detention was over. 

Now that Lily had gotten them to talk to her about their plans, the boys were much more open with her. Over the next several weeks they frequently asked for her help with difficult charms and she was always happy to help. Lily found James looking at her many times, always turning away quickly when she noticed him. She found herself thinking about him often, during class and in her sleep, but pushed these thoughts away. 

Lily was eating breakfast one day during the sixth month of the school year. On the other side of the table she saw James looking her way. She raised her head and looked at him.

"Yes?" she asked loudly so that James could hear her. 

James realized she was talking to him and his eyes grew wide. Then he turned scarlet and quickly turned his attention to his plate of food, mumbling to himself. Sirius glanced oddly at Lily and then to his best friend. He said something under his breath and started grinning like he'd just seen a pot of pure gold. James whispered something that sounded like 'shut up', and Sirius started laughing. Remus then joined in with the laughter and smiled warmly at Lily. She tried to make a confused expression appear on her face and then began to chew on her bacon. As she thought about what had just happened she tried hard not to let a smile creep up. 

She almost screamed when eggs flew by, almost hitting her nose. Instead it hit the fifth year next to her. She looked up and saw Sirius trying to seem innocent, but instead of yelling at him, the fifth year took a spoon full of pudding and flung it at Sirius. Thus began a food fight. Food was being thrown all over the place and some Hufflepuffs had joined also. Fifty points were taken from Gryffindor and twenty from Hufflepuff but no one minded, it had been too much fun. Lily smiled to herself contently. 'Petunia doesn't know what she's missing out on,' she decided as she sat in Professor McGonagall's office along with twenty other students from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Lily looked around and thought, 'this school's the best!'

  
**Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own any of this, it's all J. K. Rowling's **

Author's Note: So I hope you enjoyed it so far. Let me know if its good and I'll add more. Thanks!


	4. Dreams

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Author's Note: Ugh, I've been suffering from writer's block for several months now, woe to my English grade. Anyway, let's hope I can write again. I'm horrible at writing suspense though so this story will probably never amount to much, waaaaa, goodbye hopes of ever being a writer.

Disclaimer: um…………..yea just look at the previous chapters, you get the point.

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"Hahahahahahaha!" 

"What's going on?!" Lily shrieked and ran around in panic unable to see where she was going. "Leave me alone! Help!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Stop! Stop, please stop! Ahhh!"

Lily bolted upright. Sweat was running down her face onto her nightgown. "What? Huh…ugh…" She put her hand to her head to steady herself as her headache hit full force. 'What was I dreaming about?' Lily wondered. All she could remember is running around in pitch-blackness and hearing an evil cackle in the background. It was the third nightmare that she'd had in the last month and she didn't know where they were coming from. 'They're all so alike,' she pondered. Lily looked around the dark dormitory to see her friend Samantha seated near the window. Samantha sensed her stare, "isn't the moon beautiful?" Lily walked over and looked out the window, it was a full moon tonight. "Hmm? Yes, but its blocking out the light from the stars." They both got shivers down their spines as they heard the painful howling of a wolf. "We should go back to bed," Samantha mumbled quietly. "Yes…" Lily replied, while they both sat near the window for another twenty minutes.

"Lily! Lily! Come quick!" Sirius yelled when he finally found what he'd been looking for for the last half an hour. He skidded to a halt in front of her panting from his run through the castle. "What is it?" Lily questioned. "Well see, Peter sort of…um…..got um…..stuck? To the…..ceiling? We were hoping you could charm him down somehow." "Ugh," she grunted as she followed Sirius to the spot of the mishap. 

Peter was hanging in the air about five inches below the ceiling crying like a storm. 'How pitiful,' Lily thought as she looked up at him. She brought Peter down and hissed a curt "you're welcome," to his back as he walked away without even a nod of gratitude. Peter's lack of respect was reimbursed as Remus came bounding at her grinning from ear to ear. "Look look!" he cried gleefully as he showed her the progress on their map of the school. Lily complimented him on it and asked if they had any homework for transfiguration class. Lily was still very involved with the boys' map outlining, but much to three of the boys' dismay they found out she cared more about her marks then about mapping out the school, and therefore was not always around when the boys went scouting. She followed Remus to class while he chattered on about the latest secret passageway and their hopes of finding one that lend to the illustrious Hogsmeade, a wizard town filled with wizardry things and candy. 

"Hahaha!" Lily physically shook when she heard the laughter. It reminded her at once about her dream, and her headache came back tenfold with a vengeance. _"Hahahahaha!"_ "Ugh," she grumbled as she mentally straightened herself out. 'Oh, it's just that seventh year Tom Riddle,' she stated to herself. She entered the class and tried to will away her headache as the teacher drawled on about things Lily that questioned if she'd ever understand. 

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Author's Note: Ugh, I'm running out of juice here, not much into Harry Potter writing anymore. Crazy about Inu-yasha now. If you don't know what it is, that's all right. I still don't think much is going to come from this story, I have no clue where its going and I'm not coming up with any interesting ideas either. Oh well, life goes on, I keep writing, people keep reviewing? Yes, maybe? Thank you?


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